TORRINGTON — Students and friends of three Torrington High football players accused of sexual assault called the victims "whores," "hoes," and at fault for pressing charges in a barrage of social media posts, and then defended their online statements as just venting frustration.

Police on Wednesday confirmed a third Torrington High student was charged with sexual assault on March 4. The school superintendent, not police, said the 17-year-old arrested is a football player, marking the team's third sex assault arrest in two months.

In February, the Republican-American reported the arrest of seniors Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio on charges of second-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor with sexual contact and risk of injury to a minor. Police said the young men, both 18 and top players for the Red Raiders, were involved in a sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl on Feb. 10.

Wednesday, police informed Superintendent Cheryl F. Kloczko that the third student had been arrested earlier this month. Police would not name the student, citing his age. Lt. Michael Emanuel said he faces the same charges, but for an assault involving a different 13-year-old girl last fall. Police said they learned of the allegations against him while investigating the two players' cases.

Kloczko said the student was immediately suspended. Both police and Kloczko said the assaults did not happen on school grounds.

It was not clear why the arrest was not made public before Wednesday. Emanuel said the police department's failure to release arrest information on the juvenile may have been an oversight.

"The 13-year-olds, the 17-year-old, the 18-year-olds, they knew each other. I'm not minimizing that. The reason this is a sexual assault is because of the more than three-year age difference. That what we have to keep in mind," Emanuel said.

When asked if the sexual encounters were consensual, Emanuel said "statutorily it is not consensual."

"It's very involved. It's very difficult to follow, even for us," Emanuel added.

Emanuel said more arrests are likely.

WHETHER THE VICTIMS WERE to blame, and if they willingly had sex with the players, was a focus of much of the tweets posted.

"Idk (I don't know) what's more sad," read a Tweet that was retweeted, or sent to friends, several times. "The young (—-) hoes or the creeps (f———) these young (—-) hoes! Shouts out to Torrington CT!!"

Another Tweet said, "Young girls acting like whores, there's no pushiment for that. Young men acting like boys is a sentence."

The posts followed last weekend's guilty verdicts in a rape case in Stuebenville, Ohio that drew worldwide attention. There, two football players, Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond, were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile jail Sunday after being found guilty of raping a drunk 16-year-old girl, according to The Associated Press. In that crime, the players and others at the party where the rape occurred took video and sent photos of the naked victim, and afterward traded tweets about the crime with their friends.

Fresh off that news, reports of the Torrington tweets went global, being touted on national and international news sites as another example of both high school athletes and social media turned terribly wrong.

Water Lewis, a 2011 graduate of Torrington High School, posted the tweet about "young girls acting like whores."

Lewis, who goes by the Twitter handle "wallou_6LHwnl," defended his comments in a phone interview from Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., where he's a sophomore studying psychology.

Lewis said his use of the word "whores" was definitely wrong. He added he doesn't know who the victims are but he does know the accused football players.

"I didn't mean to blame the girls or put blame on the girls," Lewis said. "All I was saying, some of our young women are putting themselves in situations that could hurt themselves. This could have been avoided."

Lewis said he's received 200 comments from people he doesn't know accusing him of being a rape sympathizer.

Emanuel said police have not received any complaints from the victims or information about threats or bullying online. He encouraged anyone with information about bullying or harassment to come forward.

Dan Tierney, spokesman for Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine, said Wednesday that two girls in Steubenville, 15 and 16, were charged with making online threats against the victim, one of which was a death threat.

"I don't think it's right anybody should be bullying the victim over Twitter or social media or even saying anything. I just think it's wrong," said Torrington High junior Nick Tomchik, who was not involved in the posting.

Students should know better, after assemblies and announcements warning them about the use of social media, said junior Blair Wachtel. "Kids do get the message now ... they're either not caring or don't care enough."

IT'S NOT CLEAR IF THE DISTRICT will encourage any discussion regarding students' use of Twitter and other social media. Kloczko and Kenneth Traub, school board chairman, declined to comment Wednesday, citing federal regulations which prohibit them from discussing students. The controversy, and the third arrest, create a challenge for newly hired football coach Gaitan Rodriguez. Rodriguez had his first meeting with returning players last week. He is leading a team that in addition to the sexual assault scandal also was last year investigated for hazing.

The school district has declined to comment on the hazing incident, other thanto say outside agencies were called in to investigate. The hazing and the sexual assault charges are not related, police said.

Coach Dan Dunaj resigned in early January after a five-year tenure, after the hazing but before the alleged sexual assaults. He said he was resigning because he and his wife were expecting another baby.

Board of Education members said they want answers about the arrests and board member Paul E. Cavagnero on Wednesday night asked for an executive session before next Wednesday's meeting to discuss "what is now a matter of public record"

"We the Board of Education have got to get in front of this and I don't think we are anywhere near that," Cavagnero said. "I want to know why this is occurring now. I want to know who should be accountable. How widespread this is. To me there are accountability issues here. There are serious accountability issues here."

" I heard on the radio this morning that the young woman is being harassed by classmates in light of the events that took place. It is a shame that our society punishes the victims in situations like this and the parents are not telling their kids that this behavior is unacceptable. This is the very reason that a woman will hold this in and never tell a soul and never get the counseling needed to mentally recover from the trauma. "

" Sports is a hotbed of immoral activity, especially as it concerns the athletes abuse of young women. The level of debauchery and sense of entitlement only increases as the level of competition increases.

What is intended as a way to learn sportsmanship, and manly behaviour, becomes a school for bad behaviour, and sportsmanship is trampled in the dust.. "

" Blue star, you're completely lost when you keep saying athletes have no respect for females and are all thugs. I have news for you, Torrington is an armpit of CT and other towns football programs don't act like idiots like these guys. I don't know what makes them think they're so entitled to everything they stink! If that ever happens/happened to my daughter lets just say I'd be the one going to jail. "

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